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Tomato Experiment

I was out in the garden looking at the tomato plants. I saw that one of the tomato plants had a good size branch laying on the ground.

All the rest of the plant was resting comfortably on the tomato cage.

I thought it would be fun to do a little experiment with the tomato plant. So, I decided to cut off the branch and propagate it to see if it would work.

The reason I want to try this is that I don’t want to plant to get any diseases early in the season. I also want to get as many tomatoes as possible this year. I would like to try out canning this year and start a homemade pantry.

If I don’t work I didn’t lose anything. If it does work I have an extra tomato plant producing more fruit (and yes tomatoes are fruit and not a vegetable). But that is a whole different blog post altogether.

What is Propagating?

Propagating a plant is to make a full-size plant out of a piece of another plant. Tomato plants are a prime plant to do this too.

Tomato plant branches have little hairs on them. When the branch is planted, those hairs become roots and the tomato branch becomes a whole new plant.

How to Propagate a Tomato Plant

Take a knife, clippers, or scissors and cut the branch as close to the stem of the plant as you can. If the is a little bend in the branch cut that small piece off to make it as straight as possible.

Take off all the bottom leaves so you can plant it as deep as possible. Dig a hole and place the tomato plant in the hole and fill in the with the compost that you dug out. Push the compost tightly around the new tomato plant to help it stand up straight. Then give it a good watering.

I will be updating the process of the propagation as it goes on. Cross your fingers that it works.

If you would like to help with donations so I can purchase farm equipment click here.